Word: understanding
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...East is a trail marked by secrecy and deceit. It is a trail traveled by ruthless poachers, cunning smugglers, corrupt and inept officials, and the barons of the trade: a handful of men who have never seen an elephant in the wild. They and their wealthy customers do not understand -- or choose not to -- the high cost of this trade. They do not see the herds mowed down by automatic assault rifles, the tusks frantically hacked from the skulls and the orphaned and wounded elephants left to die. Ten years ago, 1.3 million elephants pressed the earth of Africa. Today...
...France, West Germany, England, Canada and Australia. Japan and Hong Kong, the centers of the trade, followed suit. In Africa nations have declared war on the poachers. Thousands have been arrested, scores killed and tons of illicit tusks seized. Most significant of all, consumers are beginning to understand the link between their ivory baubles and trinkets and the mutilated carcasses from which they came. If regulation fails, consumer revulsion to ivory may be the elephant's last hope...
...Lausanne, the elephant will still be in some peril. Even if the ivory trade winds down, the elephant will face increasing encroachment from Africa's fast-growing human populations. African farmers or herdsmen trying to eke out a living covet the vast habitats set aside for animals and cannot understand why scarce financial resources go to protect elephants while people go hungry. To many Africans, the elephant is a five-ton nuisance that can trample a season's maize in seconds. As long as they feel that way, they will turn a blind eye to poaching. Revenues from tourism...
...says he was won over by the animals. "I wish the whole world could see the elephants the way I saw them," Gup says. "Then they would understand that ivory is not jade; it's not a mineral. It's the product of a magnificent animal that has suffered tremendously so that people can wear something gleaming around their necks...
...biggest failing was not getting his family to the U.S. in time to save Eleni. The resentment colors Gage's transformation from a greenhorn with an unpronounceable name to an American success story bylined Nicholas Gage. Only when the author has his own family does he come to understand the difference between a mother's love and a father...